


Arbitrary Rules, Harry Potter Edition

by Ferith12



Series: Arbitrary Rules [12]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-07
Updated: 2021-01-01
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:28:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25555870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ferith12/pseuds/Ferith12
Series: Arbitrary Rules [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1790317
Kudos: 2





	1. Table of Contents

2\. Harry Potter, on safe places, 182 words

3\. Ginny Weasley, on flying, 131 words

4\. James Potter, on The Marauders courage, 232 words

5\. Fred and George Weasley, trying to be Snape's Least Favorite, 237 words


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry Potter and #4, Describe something without using sight (from the POV of a sighted person)

The Gryffindor common room was a safe place. Sometimes it was quiet, sometimes loud and bustling with students, but always it was safe, a haven, a home.

The common room was quiet now. Harry sat on the couch, leaning into the soft cushions like an embrace. The fire crackled in front of him, warm and comforting. The room smelled of wood paneling, and very faintly of smoke and the particular oils and greases from when Harry was tuning up his broom earlier.

The Gryffindor common room awas a safe place, not in the way that his old cupboard under the stairs was safe, with it’s cold hard walls closing all around him, too small for anyone to fit but him. The Gryffindor common room wasn’t safe because the bad people couldn’t get in. The wizarding world was full of dangers, far bigger and stronger than the Dursleys and they probably could get into the common room, given Hogwarts’ track record. The Gryffindor common room wasn’t safe because no one could hurt him here, but because here, for now, no one wanted to.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ginny Weasley and 7. Write something with no “to be” words (is, was, were, are, be, etc.)

Ginny flies, breath catching in the wind, heart beating with the thrill of trespass. The boys left for school yesterday, and the quietness nearly suffocated her, but now the entire sky belongs to her, no one here to catch her but Mum alone in the house. She swoops through the air, down and then up again, she turns in a spiral, faster and smaller until she’s dizzy.

The sky goes on forever. She loves the bigness of it, the eternity, like she could fly away if she wanted, fly up and up and up. But only if she wants to. She’ll choose to stay for now, but she still has that feeling, the idea. For now she stays, but tomorrow, who knows what could happen? The sky will wait for her.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> James Potter and #8, Write something without using pronouns referring to people

Daring and dashing and dazzlingly kind, this is what James Potter was at his best. When James was small, courage was the boy with worn robes and tattered schoolbooks, and courage was a boy, laughing and cruel and wanting not to be, and courage was a boy who dived head first into all the fights, even though the three boys weren’t even his friends yet.

For James Potter, all his life, courage meant three friends, Remus who survived and Sirius who defied and Peter who wasn’t afraid of anything. To James, courage was the most important thing in the world.

It took a while for James to grow into the space where no one else could fit. What was courage as defined by James Potter, what was James’s place in this four cornered house of friendship?

It took James much longer to recognize it than to fill it.

To Remus Lupin and Sirius Black, courage was a boy who wasn’t afraid to make friends with anyone, or to make enemies on behalf of friends. Courage was being there with open arms, was not understanding and still being willing to try anyway, to listen. Courage was a boy who had no problems, and chose not to be content with that. Courage was having no need to care, but caring anyway. James’s courage was the center pole of the Marauders' friendship.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Write something only using words that are one syllable long

“What do you think?” Fred asked, “Does he hate us yet?”

“Nah, no more than he hates all kids,” George said. They sighed as one.

Fred and George were on year two of “make us Snape’s least liked kids in the whole school.” It did not seem like it should be so hard, the snag was that Snape loathed all in Gryffindor, and for once in their lives Fred and George just could not stand out. Snape was a bit more of a snake now than he had been when the twins first came, but the bad mood did not seem to be their fault, he was a grump as a rule, and they could not prove that their pranks had been the cause.

“It’s old age,” Fred said where Snape could hear, “gets to us all in the end.” And George had made sure Snape could see him nod, his face grave.

“Ten points from Gryffindor!” Snape snapped, “Each.”

There was no real proof, and yet, they were sure that they were close, they could feel it.

It took them four more months, but they got there in the end.

“You two,” Snape told them as they scraped at the charred hulls of old pots for him, “Are the worst boys I have had to teach in all my years.”

Fred and George beamed.

The next year, of course, Harry Potter came to Hogwarts.


End file.
